Tory MP Admits Party Conference Slogan 'Excludes People'

Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron addresses Conservative Party supporters at the Amberside Sports Club in Nuneaton. Cameron was launching the Conservative Party's local election campaign.

Conservative activists are gathered in Manchester for their annual conference under the banner "For Hardworking People". However one Tory MP has admitted the slogan may be a big mistake as it "excludes" too many voters.

Margot James told a meeting on the fringe of the conference on Sunday evening that she was taken aback when she first saw the phrase on a leaflet.

"When it came through my letter box I thought 'oh my god I don't like that'. Because of course we are on the side of hardworking people, that is the essence of what this government is about, but it excludes too many people," she said.

The Stourbridge MP said the slogan left out "children, older people, retired folk, and people with disabilities and people who for whatever reason can not work".

"There are people who can not work who would dearly love to be hardworking people and I felt very much for those groups when I saw that slogan."

James said that while it was obviously "not meant" to exclude people, she worried it could put off some voters that the party needed to attract.

The Conservative Party conference got underway on Sunday as David Cameron attempts to convince his party grassroots that he is able to secure a overall Tory majority in 2015.

But as the four day political rally began environment secretary Owen Paterson warned the party had a year to "get their act together" and turn the polls around or face defeat at the general election. "At the moment it looks like we are going to end up with Mr Miliband," he conceded.